VMware's NSX Open For Partner Business

Channel partners have not yet had much opportunity to sell VMware's new network virtualization and security platform, NSX, but Senior Vice President and General Manager Steve Mullaney said that is changing.

"We deliberately held it back from our channel partners to make sure we were getting ready to cross the chasm, so that way when it's ready, the product's ready, the market's ready, the demand is there, and it's ready to go," Mullaney said. "Because nothing is worse for a channel partner than to get people ready before the demand is there."

Mullaney said now that VMware has ramped up channel offerings, partners should strike while the iron's hot.

"We have hundreds of paying customers using NSX for two main reasons. The first is just agility and automation and building a real cloud data center, and the second is better security through microsegmentation," said Mullaney. "Every single one of our customers are doing both of those things."

Margins also look good in the small to medium business space, where midmarket companies are quickly embracing NSX.

"We're kind of at that perfect window where it's deployable," Mullaney said about the solution.

Mullaney said that at this stage of the game, services and architecture can easily be sold alongside the technology, and it's still early enough that the opportunity is not crowded with partners.

While a large group of EMC's investors continue to hope that EMC will sell parts of itself to create more clear valuation for them, EMC is likely heading in the opposite direction by considering more acquisitions, according to a top analyst.